2TB USB HDD and Migrations

Hi All,

 

I got a good deal on a 2TB USB drive from Toshiba. Before I go off and do something silly (like try to move all of my FSX stuff) and have it not work ... or worse, I thought I'd ask advice here.

 

I'm using FSX SE on a laptop running Win 10 (Not optimum,but it works for what I need). I have a powered USB 3.0 hub. Right now I have a separate partition in my HDD platter (F: Drive) that I have put all of my flight sim stuff (FSXSE, add-ons, scenery, etc) into.

 

Is there an easy way to migrate this entire partition to the new drive? Willmy FSX SE move in its entirety so that it runs as easily as it does now? Will I notice any real advantage to doing all of this?

 

Thanks for any and all input. I know that some out there have done this or something similar. What are the pros and cons?

Simple: Rename your HDD to P: Drive and your new 2TB drive to F: Drive and copy all the files across.

 

Done. You can then test the `new` F: Drive to make sure it's fast enough (USB drive is slower than HDD in some instances) and if access speed is OK, delete the content of the P: Drive.

 

If it isn't, all is not lost: You can can still use the USB as a file repository for things only accessed occasionally - the Addon Scenery, SimObjects folder, that sort of thing using Symbolic Links which we have only been talking about recently.

 

Just don't delete the original file contents until the exercise is complete...

Bill,

 

The conventional wisdom is it won’t work. First, putting FSX on an external drive, USB in particular won’t give you the performance you expect.

 

Most significant is that most developers write stuff all over the place, most significantly the registry. I think Flight1 used to have a tool that would help, don’t know if it’s still available. Depending on how many add-ons you have finding all the parts would be a pain someplace south.

 

Good luck and I hope someone knows more than I do.

 

Glenn

Bill,

 

I also doubt it will be any sort of IMPROVEMENT since the USB drive is probably slower but look at the specifications of the current HDD and the USB; I suppose they could be similar enough to not matter much.

 

You could test this before committing to any permanent change.

NOT recommended to attempt this unless you are comfortable with the backing up and editing needs.

 

My main installation (including ORBX scenery) is 60.5 Gb.

main scenery folder is 21 Gb.

Orbx scenery is 29.9 Gb

SimObjects is 3.35 Gb. and only 31 mostly default aircraft/'copters.

 

I have 6.5G (53 additional) addon aircraft in a HDD folder outside of FSX

and over 1/2 Tb of mostly photoscenery on an external USB drive.

I don't notice any issues with the 'externally located' scenery or aircraft.

 

Since the bulk of the sim is Scenery and can be anywhere anyway, you could

 

COPY (NOT MOVE) your scenery folder to the USB drive.

Properly/accurately BACKUP your current scenery.cfg (not the default one in the fsx folder)

edit the scnery.cfg with find/replace until it references only the USB COPY.

See how it runs for a few hours or weeks.

 

The revised scenery.cfg entries would change thusly:

 

[Area.001]

Title=Default Terrain

Local=Scenery\World

to

[Area.001]

Title=Default Terrain

Local=G:\Scenery\World // usb copy

 

Aircraft stored remotely are added to the hangar by adding their location to the FSX.cfg as in

 

[Main]

User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter

SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes

SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles

SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats

SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals

SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc

// additional locations

SimObjectPaths.6=G:\AI_Boats

SimObjectPaths.7=G:\AI_Aircraft

SimObjectPaths.8=G:\Addon_Aircraft

 

running from a COPIED SimObjects folder would look like

 

[Main]

User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter

SimObjectPaths.0=G:\SimObjects\Airplanes

SimObjectPaths.1=G:\SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=G:\SimObjects\GroundVehicles

SimObjectPaths.3=G:\SimObjects\Boats

SimObjectPaths.4=G:\SimObjects\Animals

SimObjectPaths.5=G:\SimObjects\Misc

// additional locations

SimObjectPaths.6=G:\AI_Boats

SimObjectPaths.7=G:\AI_Aircraft

SimObjectPaths.8=G:\Addon_Aircraft

 

This is mostly about checking performance and is easily undone. I wouldn't migrate or reinstall to the USB without a reasonable period of testing.

 

Best of luck and let us know how it went.

 

Loyd

Bill,

 

"The conventional wisdom is it won’t work. First, putting FSX on an external drive, USB in particular won’t give you the performance you expect."

 

Actually, the conventional wisdom is that, as far as in-game performance goes, there is no difference between an internal drive and an external USB3 drive. The load times are going to be longer but once the sim starts there is no noticeable performance difference at all. That said, the best course of action is to uninstall FSX from the internal drive and re-install it on the external drive..........Doug

Don't try even. If you do this it will mess up the system.

Plus Usb connected drives, even Usb3, are much slower then the drive in the system. An external drive is simply a regular sata drive in a Usb 3 enclosure and every read/write gets translated to Usb protocol. The translating slows everything way down. The drive in your laptop is sata and connects without translation. Even if that internal drive is sata(1) its faster.

 

Also, when connecting an externalt drive it does not always have the same drive letter. So that causes a problem.

 

Especially don't change the drive letter of your internal f: drive. If you have other programs installed on that they will no longer work, and can't be uninstalled either. So you're stuck without them.

 

There's a 100% chance of ending up having to completely reinstall fsx. If not everything.

 

You could use the external better for storing other stuff. Data.

 

Programs should not be installled on or moved to externals. Possible, yes. Clever, definitely not.

 

If you really need more space, head to the heel squad again, and ask them to migrate your internal partitions over to a larger internal drive. (mention you want all partitions to be bigger after. Not just the same size with unused disk space at the end.) (You could even do that yourself, but as it involves all your precious data and you've never done it before, let them do it for you.) (as its not that difficult, I don't expect they'll charge much for the migrating. Especially if you btw the new hdd from them too. Good to let them choose one, not all drives will fit in a laptop, so selecting the right one is tricky.

 

After that you will haven plenty of space on each partition.

 

Note, do make good backup of all you personal data (bank stuff, taxes, family photo's, etc before sending your system to geek squad. So that if something goes wrong ties wow still have your stuff.

Easyest is to create on the external a folder 'backup' with in it a folder D_today. Then just copy every folder on the root of the D drive to that folder.

Do the same for you E drive.

And for some selected folders on C, such as c/users/documents

and c/user/downloads.

The files on the Desktop are also on the C drive.

Don't try even. If you do this it will mess up the system.

Plus Usb connected drives, even Usb3, are much slower then the drive in the system. An external drive is simply a regular sata drive in a Usb 3 enclosure and every read/write gets translated to Usb protocol. The translating slows everything way down. The drive in your laptop is sata and connects without translation. Even if that internal drive is sata(1) its faster.

 

External USB3 drives may be a little slower, but are still quite usable for something like FSX. See the review below with an external SSD hitting 484MB/sec in some tests, which is faster than SATA 1.

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/samsung-t5

 

Or this review:

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3034714/storage/samsung-t3-review-this-usb-31-drive-is-stupidly-fast.html

 

The main factor with external hard drive performance is the type of drive being used. Many are 5400 RPM drives which are slower than 7200 RPM HDDs or SSDs no matter what interface is being used.

 

So, yes, an external USB3 could be used for FSX, depending on the type of drive.

Mallcott has the simplest, and best, solution to give it a try with an easy out if you don't like it.

 

I'll echo his last line:

Just don't delete the original file contents until the exercise is complete...

Mallcott has the simplest, and best, solution to give it a try with an easy out if you don't like it.

 

I'll echo his last line:

Just don't delete the original file contents until the exercise is complete...

 

Which is why I gave it without the unqualified opinions. The methodology is what was asked about. Not the result.

External USB3 drives may be a little slower, but are still quite usable for something like FSX. See the review below with an external SSD hitting 484MB/sec in some tests, which is faster than SATA 1.

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/samsung-t5

 

Or this review:

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3034714/storage/samsung-t3-review-this-usb-31-drive-is-stupidly-fast.html

 

The main factor with external hard drive performance is the type of drive being used. Many are 5400 RPM drives which are slower than 7200 RPM HDDs or SSDs no matter what interface is being used.

 

So, yes, an external USB3 could be used for FSX, depending on the type of drive.

 

I haven't tried it myself. But I certainly think, especially with USB 3, it should be fine!

 

I also can't state strongly enough, as with any other change, "Just don't delete the original file contents until the exercise is complete..."

Indeed, it will be fine. As I said above, once the sim is loaded there will be NO noticeable performance difference. None, nada, zilch. I've run studies for years testing all kinds of drive configurations. Internal, external USB3 direct, external USB3 with a docking station. Various drive speeds,i.e., 5400 rpm, 7200 rpm, 10,000 rpm, and SSDs. As one would expect, the initial load times are quite different for each configuration, but the in-game performance is essentially the same. I have data to back this up but I'm 9300 miles away from my FS computer. I'll be home in a month, or so, and if anyone is still interested I'll post it..........Doug